It is finally here, our final week of the first quarter. Just as the calendar officially moves from Spring into Summer, so does our Year in the Bible calendar. So, next week we start our count over again and will be in week one.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We still have to finish this week. We have a lighter week with just a bit of Deuteronomy and more Acts. We’ll finish both and continue with Psalms. Once we do that, we’ll have read the entire Pentateuch, learned about the beginning of the church, and we’ll be over a quarter of the way through Psalms.
We finish the quarter with a Review & Preview Session after church on Sunday. It is a perfect time to get the big picture of what we’ve read so far, and if you haven’t read at all, you can come and it’ll be a bit of a shortcut. It’s a good entry point if you want to join for the second quarter. We’ll also have some previews of what is to come–introducing the genres and topics we have to look forward to.
PLUS – we’ll have some lunch. If you’re coming, I’d love to have you let me know so I can best prepare.
And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.
It is required of Israel’s kings to write out their very own copy of the law and to then keep it with them all the days of their life. And not just to make their office bookshelf look impressive. They are to learn from it and act on it, not turning from it in the least. This is a prescription for success in the eyes of God.
We may not be writing out our own text, but make your Bible your own. As you read it, mark it up and make notes. Keep it with you all the days of your life. Let God keep you humble by it, may God also bless you as you dedicate such time and attention to his Word. We are reading all of it because the entirety of the Bible is written for us, and doing so is a kingly pursuit.
We’re now beginning one dozen weeks of spending time focusing on reading God’s Word. I’m sure you’ve had up weeks and down weeks, when it has been easy or hard. Maybe this is a week that you want to catch up a bit. Each of your experiences are probably very different, but what is the same is the same commitment to set aside a part of our busy lives to be devoted to God.
I’m sure God has blessed such devotion and I’d love to hear if you have stories to share.
This week we have some more of the same as we continue Deuteronomy and Acts. If you’re new, I’ll pass along the advice I heard this morning. Read Acts 7.
It is not in this week’s assignment, but go back and at least read that. It’ll do a great job of catching you up on so much of what we’ve read in the Old Testament. If you feel like you still have gaps or questions, send them my way. I’ll work hard to get to an answer this week and post about it. This site is to be as great a help as possible–and that can only happen if you let me know what you need.
We’ve now gone through almost half of Deuteronomy and half of Acts, and we’re getting ever closer to the end of our first quarter. We’ve read in Deuteronomy how Moses is making final preparations for the people before they (and not he) enter into the promised land. He is restating the law making bold reminders that they are not entering into the land as people deserving, nor as a righteous people. God has done the work and it is by his grace that they will receive what is coming their way.
God, too, is doing the work through Acts by the Holy Spirit. Men and women are being taken up in service to the church of Jesus Christ, and by his name are doing great works and preaching the good news to both Jews and Gentiles.
Deuteronomy 8 also is the original location of the words that Jesus quotes when he is in the desert, tempted by Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone.” The Israelites are reminded by this that their needs are greater than food, more than the food they had in Egypt. They have a great need and reliance upon the Lord our God.We learn this lesson as well in Acts as all that is done is done by the power God gives and it is for God’s glory. The Spirit comes and gives the disciples the ability to work miracles, these signs are done in Jesus name, and it is all in God’s plan. The needs of the disciples move beyond bread alone, as they give up their material goods to serve others and support the new found community. If it were all about bread, or stuff, they would horde and keep to themselves, instead they sell their possessions and give to those who have need.
They do, as we read earlier in Acts, spend time breaking bread, but the church is more than that and they are devoted as well to the teachings of God. The church of Acts demonstrates well the second half of that line from Deuteronomy 8, “but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Philip Catechizes the Ethiopian, Exeter College Chapel, Oxford
I love the story of Philip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8. In a nutshell it is a story of Philip telling this man the good news of Jesus Christ, but it is much more. There are details like how Philip runs in verse 30 when the Spirit tells him to go to the chariot. He doesn’t just walk, but he runs in obedience to the Spirit. This story is a great testament to Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in that Philip teaches Isaiah as speaking about Jesus. There is great urgency from the Ethiopian at hearing and believing the good news as he wants to immediately be baptized. Then at the end Philip is carried away by the Spirit never to be seen by the other man again, and then finds himself in another town.
Like I said, a great story. And it also a great challenge to us to heed the words of 1 Peter:
…Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
Would we have been prepared to instruct someone reading Isaiah with such questions? Are we equipped when someone asks us to tell them about our faith? Can we do it and will we do it with such enthusiasm that we run to those opportunities?
About one year ago I preached on a text we read this week from Acts 9. It is the famous conversion of Saul, but instead of placing focus there, I gave more attention to an overlooked character of the story, Ananias. He’s the one given the task by God to welcome in a great enemy of the early church, the persecutor, Saul.
I set the stage like this:
Could you imagine? God comes to him in a vision, speaking his name, and Ananias responds, “Here I am Lord!” Then as the conversation continues he’s a little caught off guard. “You want me to do what? To Saul? I’ve heard of all the evil he is doing. You do realize that he has the authority to bind all (and by all, that means me!) who call on your name?” This has to be terrifying for him. We have the benefit of knowing the full story of Saul, how he is transformed by God and becomes a great servant of Jesus Christ. We know him much more as Paul the Apostle. Yet all Ananias knew was Saul, Saul the Persecutor of Christians, Saul the Enemy of the Church. Who really had persecuted the young Christian church more than he? Who had directly overseen more arrests and imprisonments? And that Saul is the one Ananias must lay hands on and heal.
Ananias has a tough task ahead. It boils down to the call we all have to love our enemies, as Jesus commanded in Matthew 5. We aren’t to return love to only those who love us. No, we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Saul fits that description quite nicely.
I finished the message with what we can learn from Ananias’ example of following Christ’s command, and in truth, Christ’s model of loving enemies.
…I don’t claim to excel at loving my neighbors, let alone loving my enemies. This is a challenge for me. But I don’t think many of us have enemies we encounter greater than what Ananias had in Saul. I don’t think our excuses for not obeying Christ’s command to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute would match up with any of the excuses I’m sure Ananias could have come up with. But he didn’t make excuses. Christ is Lord, he trusted in him–he trusted that no matter how things might have appeared, God is in control, and he obeyed.
Gradually the memory technique gives way—having acted like a scaffold—and you just know the contents. There are other positive things about this: the process of learning forces a depth of pattern perception that means you *truly* engage with the material.
Have you ever memorized verses of the Bible? Or how about asking it like this: Have you memorized any Scripture since being a child in Sunday school classes?
If you have a desire to memorize, let me know. Let’s challenge each other to do so. It’s harder to do it alone, so maybe the two (or more?) of us can do it together and get our brains working hard, in order to better understand and retain God’s Word in us.
Deuteronomy is the fifth and final book the Pentateuch, so well done at making it this far. As you begin reading it, I thought I’d give you a bit of background.
Deuteronomy tells us in the opening line of its author, Moses. These first books are commonly called the Law of Moses and are attributed to him (eg. Matthew 19:7-8, Acts 3:22-23), but there is debate as to what exactly this includes. Due to some of the literary formatting and content such as an account of Moses’ own death, it is thought there is additional help from editors or authors to take the words of Moses and fit them into a greater narrative.
The book begins where the previous left off, and ends there as well, on the plains of Moab (Dt. 34). It is a time for Israel to prepare itself for what will come in Joshua, the delayed conquest of the land that God had promised them, and for Moses to transfer leadership and give his parting words. We find in Deuteronomy another instance of the Ten Commandments and a renewal of the covenant with God.
Moses empfängt die Gesetzestafeln, c. 840
Think about the overall story we’ve seen so far. God has made a world for us to live in and it was good. But we sinned. We disobeyed and turned from God, bringing sin into creation. Having been cast out of the garden, you’d think the people would be alone. Yet God does not forget humanity. He chooses for himself a people and calls Abraham out to be the father of many nations. As we read, it isn’t because he was a perfect man–nor was Isaac or Jacob, or the other so-called patriarchs. God chose us and he remains perfectly faithful as we are too often faithless.
God promises a land to his people, but there is an interlude in Egypt during which the Israelites are slaves. By God’s strong hand he delivers them from bondage, showing his might to Israel’s enemies. He guides them out of oppression toward a promise of a land to call their own. All along the way the people grumble and complain, looking back favorably on Egypt. Working through his servant, Moses, God disciplines his people, but never leaves us. He gives us laws to guide us and sets up camp right in the midst of the people.
He actively guides them to the doorstep of the promised land, a land the scouts see is full of milk and honey, but also of formidable enemies. So even though God has been with them from the time of Abraham and literally camps with them in the tabernacle, their fear overwhelms them and they reject God’s will. So the promised land remains for God’s people a promise, but for a new generation. They wander one year for every day the scouts were in Canaan. For forty years they continue in the wilderness until, at the end of Numbers, their great numbers camp again at the doorstep.
Moses knows he will not enter with them, only Joshua and Caleb have that privilege from the generation that disobeyed. Deuteronomy is the book that further sets the scene for the final transition that began with Abraham and will come to fruition with Joshua. Israel are a people of the promise. God told Abraham to leave the land he knew and follow, and the people have been following with the hope of a land to call their own. And now in Deuteronomy, they are almost there.
Year in the Bible 